Related Stories

Pigeons have the potential to become discerning art critics, according to a new Japanese study.

Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University say they have found that pigeons have "advanced perceptive abilities" and can distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' paintings, recognising beauty the way humans do.

The findings of the government-funded study are due to be published in the journal Animal Cognition .

The team, who previously published research saying that pigeons can tell a Monet from a Picasso, were studying whether the animals may also be able to prefer one to the other.

Fine taste rewarded

For their experiment, the scientists took paintings by elementary school children and selected those that were commonly deemed to be 'good' and 'bad' by teachers and a control group of other adults.

The researchers then displayed the pictures on a screen to the birds and gave food rewards to those that picked at the 'good' paintings.

They denied rewards to those pigeons that displayed poor artistic taste.

The researchers used a variety of images, including pastels and watercolours, still lives and landscapes, which were judged on their artistic merit, including how clear and discernable the images were.

Through the month-long experiment, the pigeons learnt to peck only at 'good' paintings says Professor Shigeru Watanabe of Keio University.

Crucially, they responded appropriately even to paintings they had not seen before, says Watanabe.

In a report, Keio University clarified that the research "did not deal with advanced artistic judgements."

"But it did indicate that pigeons are able to learn to distinguish 'good' or 'beautiful' paintings the way an ordinary human being can," the report says.

Pigeons not stupid

Ethologist Dr Gisela Kaplan, of the University of New England , says it's not surprising that pigeons can discern between 'good' and 'bad' art because they have a large visuospacial memory.

"Pigeons aren't stupid. When we test them on the visuospacial 'odd man out' question in the classic Standford Binet IQ test, pigeons end up in the genius level, which is more than we humans often do," she says.

Kaplan says the researchers have basically shown that pigeons are capable of learning.